Atlanta II: Ford Racing race quotes

MARK MARTIN --6-- Viagra Taurus (Finished 8th)
THE CAR WAS BETTER THAN
PRACTICE?Â "We didn't do anything to it, it just ran a lot better on the
long run.Â We could have finished better than eighth if we would have
gotten the rest of it in the...

MARK MARTIN --6-- Viagra Taurus (Finished 8th)

THE CAR WAS BETTER THAN
PRACTICE? "We didn't do anything to it, it just ran a lot better on the
long run. We could have finished better than eighth if we would have
gotten the rest of it in the bag because we were coming a little at a
time. But I'm thrilled. We didn't have anything like that in practice.
We were a 30th-place car -- probably, realistically, 20th -- I was just
hoping to run in the teens with it, but on those long greens I just
passed some great cars. I gave up a lot to start with, but at the end of
the runs I was as good as the leader. We've got some work to do, but
we're staying in this thing."

YOU'RE SECOND IN POINTS NOW. "I'm real
proud of this team. They've just dug in and done what it takes to win
the championship. Whether we win or not, it doesn't matter to me because
the effort has been spectacular by this team."

MATT KENSETH --17-- DEWALT Power Tools Taurus (Finished 9th)

"It's
good to get a top 10. We ran real mediocre and sub-par today, so at
least we finished pretty high. We didn't run very good."

DID YOU THINK
ABOUT STAYING OUT ON THE LAST CAUTION WHEN IT STARTED TO RAIN? YOU WERE
NINTH AT THE TIME. "Well, we all ran five green-flag laps so it wouldn't
have mattered. With all of those laps on our tires, we wouldn't have
pitted and would have had 45 or 50 laps on our tires. We would have
finished worse than we did. Noboby pitted the last time, we all pitted
five laps before that, so there really wasn't a choice there for us."

TODD BODINE --26-- Discover Card Taurus (Finished 41st)

"A rod broke
this time. It came out the side. I felt it vibrating about 20 or 30
laps before that and I told them it felt like it was laying down. I felt
it. It wasn't really laying down, but I felt a vibration and ended up
breaking the rod. Something happened to the car anyway, it had a
terrible push. We started the race really loose. We made a minor
adjustment and it was pretty good, but then after the rain it was
terrible tight and we could never get it out. Something had to happen to
it."

JEFF BURTON --99-- Citgo Taurus (Finished 12th)

"It certainly wasn't a
great day, but we've been awful here the last three races. We've just
been really, really bad and today was a step in the right direction of
being competitive. We weren't as competitive as we intend to be, but
with Paul being brand new and not knowing our cars, that's a good start
for us. Overall, we've improved our program and if we just keep
improving we'll be great. I'm not elated with a 12th-place finish, but
I'm excited about a 12th-place finish."

ANY THOUGHTS OF STAYING OUT --
YOU WERE 12TH? "No, if it would have gone green at all, they would have
blown by us. We weren't good enough to pull that strategy, so we
couldn't do it."

RUSTY WALLACE --2-- Miller Lite Taurus (Finished 17th)

"I started off
just way too loose. I got the car real soft in the front trying to
really make it turn good. Man, when they dropped that flag I was deathly
loose and I had to go way to the back. I got a lot farther up there, but
I couldn't get enough."

A TOUGH DAY? "Yeah, it was a tough day.
Doggone it, we lost more points than I wanted to. I really hoped this
was gonna be a great day to gain in the points, but I just put too small
a swaybar and too much left-front spring in the car. I changed it this
morning and it got me so loose it was unreal. But, look, after I got
that stuff tightened up, I had a really good car. But, doggone it, the
leaders at that point were about nine seconds behind me. They
short-stopped and when they stopped we kept running on the older tires
and lost too much track position and got lapped. We got the lap back a
couple times, but when it was all said and done, we had a top-five car as
far as speed on the race track, but the call I asked the guys to do this
morning killed us."

IS THE POINT DEFICIT TO GREAT NOW? "Oh no. We're
only 200-and-something out. That's a lot, but we've still got three
races to go."

DALE JARRETT --88-- UPS Taurus (Finished 3rd)

"We made the decision
before we went back green -- after the first rain delay -- to pit for
fuel. Todd and I were thinking alike. I thought that was the right
thing for us to do because we had to play to halfway at that time. The
car was kind of loose there and I couldn't go up through the pack as good
as I wanted, so we kind of got behind. We kept adjusting on the car,
making it better and making great pit stops and everything worked out. I
would have liked to have seen what I could do with them once I got there,
but we'll take a third. It was a good day."

TOUGH AS FAR AS STRATEGY
AND THE RAIN? "Yeah, that's what makes Todd's job so difficult, as if
it's not hard enough as it is. But then you're sitting there trying to
figure out when to make that pit stop or when to stay out and stretch
it. It's very, very difficult and you never knew when the rain was gonna
come on the race track, and you're running so fast here that you don't
want it to sneak up on you. NASCAR did a good job. Whenever it started
to rain at all they put the caution out, but we did a good job in
calculating and making the pit stops at the right time and the
adjustments we made were really good."

ELLIOTT SADLER --21-- Motorcraft Taurus (Finished 18th)

"I tell you
what, I'm proud of these guys. They brought the same car we had at
Charlotte. The car drove good, they did a great job with the handling of
it, but one set of tires cost us about 10 positions. I thought we had a
top-10 car or a top-15. It was good the longer it ran. It was just a
tough set of tires. I'm proud of my guys. They worked hard, had good
pit stops and we'll get 'em at Rockingham. I want to run this car every
race that we can for the rest of the season, so as long as I can keep it
in one piece, I think Pat will keep letting me race it. I'm very happy
with it."